"It happens to young people in Dublin, young people around the world".
These are the words of one of the students who spoke to RTÉ News after watching the play 'Bullied' by Michael J Hartnett.
The story at the heart of this production centres on a Grandad, and his 16-year-old granddaughter Anna, who is visiting for the weekend. As they struggle at first to communicate, it quickly becomes clear that both of them have a link that they cannot see, as both are victims of different kinds of bullying.
Mr Hartnett explained that he wanted to tell a story about the issues around bullying after having had conversations with concerned teachers, so he decided to explore the idea of a young teen being bullied by classmates on her phone, and a older man being bullied, as he describes it, by his gas company.
Anna, played by Heather Hennessy, is depicted as "never being off that bloody phone".
However it quickly becomes clear that she is receiving really nasty messages on the phone. Things escalate until she is told by her friend that some of the girls in school want to meet her at the DART station to go for an outing. When she turns up however, there is no sign of them. When Anna goes home, her grandad spots this immediately and tackles on her it but she initially refuses to admit the issue.
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Mr Hartnett said that the storyline came to him after they tried out a rough idea of the play on teenagers to get their feedback. The idea of someone being excluded socially was considered a familiar experience in the school yard popularity battles.
Ms Hennessy is 23 and said her generation was the first with phones and it led to problems because "we were ahead of the parents, they were just trying to work out how to manage the phones and we knew all about it before them."
For veteran actor Vinnie McCabe, who plays Grandad, he said he is particularly proud of this production as it tackles bullying across the generations.
In his character's case, he is trying to sort out an incorrect bill, and the charges are piling up but no-one will take his call to help him. He describes the challenges faced by older people trying to navigate technology and online systems as "making you feel like you are being squeezed out, that the system won't help you and you are on your own."
The play has been on the road for a number of months, visiting both schools and the O'Casey Theatre in East Wall, and the team has developed a relationship with the Ombudsman for Children’s office.
Timmy Hammersley from the Ombudsman's office speaks to school children in the audience directly after the show and talks about the work of the office and how it can help to support children’s rights and welfare.
He said that "bullying is a regular issue and complaint in our office and we have governmental powers to investigate and we need to get the message out there to young people that they have rights. We want to empower them".
The plan is continuing its journey across Dublin over the coming weeks, and the team is always happy to stage its production as they believe that they are presenting a story that has with a vitally important message for school children.
After a performance in O'Casey theatre, students from both Chanel College in Coolock and Synge Street who had been in the audience gave their reaction with one student saying that "back then there were no phones and now there are which is better for communication for messages but they can also be incredibly dangerous."
Another student explained that in his view "I’d say bullying is a serious issue in some schools, maybe not all but it takes tackling the problem, talking it out with people because it has led to serious consequences sometimes."
